Bowing with your Whole Self
Attend first class for free by emailing michael@feelgoodsoundgood.com
We string players often dwell on the details of our bow arm from the position of our fingers to the angle of our wrist to the height of our elbow or shoulder. Yet trouble in these areas almost always results from disorganization in the rest of our body.
In this violin/viola workshop, you will experience through the Feldenkrais Method how using your whole self frees your bow arm to its many possibilities - light and heavy, smooth and articulate, powerful and flexible.
Begin Your journey
Topics will include
- Arm weight
- Smooth bow changes
- Smooth string crossings
- Breathing and posture
- Violin/viola set up
- Sensing bow angle kinesthetically
- Preventing and recovering from injury
Class 1
Let there be light (and heavy)
How to play heavy and juicy without pressing? How to play light and delicate without shaking? The secret lies in how we organize our skeleton so that our weight is either supported by our bones or our instrument. This approach takes sitting and standing from an arduous, static posture to a dynamic dance of rounding and arching from head to toe.
Class 2
Join the pro-nation (and supi-nation)
As we travel toward the tip, we must be able to maintain the same power as at the frog, without straining our hand. This is done by pronating our arm, but this rotation goes well beyond our shoulder into our chest, pelvis and legs. Generating power proximally enables our hands to stay soft while forcefully torquing the bow.
Class 3
Tug of war
Once we have established a comfortable weight on the string, the next step is to push and pull. Yet many of us neglect the most effective way to do this! When our pelvis and torso take over the work of pushing and pulling, our arms can better sense the angle and contact point of the string, and our bow changes become super smooth.
Class 4
Rubbing it in
As we become more comfortable with tugging our strings with passive arms, a world of options opens up in all the other places we contact our violin and viola. Learning a variety of ways to rub these hidden places turns bowing into a full-body sensorial dance.
Class 5
Over and under the hump
How to transfer our weight seamlessly from one string to the next? The answer once again lies in how we use our pelvis, spine and ribs to carry our arms - this time in a surprising direction. Come find out if you are a penguin or a worm!
Class 6
Putting it all together
Once we have clarified the fundamental ways we can move to move our string, the real fun comes in exploring their endless combinations. This creative variation not only frees us from limiting physical habits, it opens us to a whole new sound world of movement-inspired colors and expression.
Topics will include
- Arm weight
- Smooth bow changes
- Smooth string crossings
- Breathing and posture
- Violin/viola set up
- Sensing bow angle kinesthetically
- Preventing and recovering from injury
Begin Your journey
